


dreams for the sleepless

by TheFlirtMeister



Category: Coco (2017)
Genre: (is it character death if hector is the one dead?? boy been dead for almost 100 years), Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Gen, Guilt, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 16:38:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13838793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFlirtMeister/pseuds/TheFlirtMeister
Summary: Ernesto dreams of Hector.This is obvious of course, you don’t murder your best friend in cold blood without having some form of night terrors about it.





	dreams for the sleepless

Ernesto dreams of Hector. This is obvious of course, you don’t murder your best friend in cold blood without having some form of night terrors about it. At first Ernesto had been afraid to sleep, drinking coffee after coffee until his fingers trembled and he could see the music notes dribbling into the air as he tried to play.

Then he gave in to temptation, as he often did, and slept. Crawled into bed in his single room, never again having to pay double so that Hector could lie ten feet away and hum songs. Songs that would later turn into love ballads for Imelda, or lullabies for Coco, or songs with dirty lyrics to make Ernesto laugh.

The first nightmares were the same, over and over again, the night of the Incident. The way Hector had clutched his stomach, the way he had sprawled across the pavement, legs and arms everywhere. The coldness of the ground against Ernesto’s knees as he knelt beside his friend. The feeling of a dying corpse in his arms, whispering his last breaths.

(Of course Ernesto had held Hector as he died. How could he have not?)

The dreams start to change slowly, over time. Sometimes Hector refuses to die, laying in Ernesto’s arms and laughing as Ernesto tries to pour more poison down his throat. It spills over Hector’s mouth, down the shirt that Ernesto took from him, and Hector laughs and laughs and calls him a fool.

Once, Ernesto is the one who dies, struggling for breath on the floor of some dark alley. Hector strokes his forehead, soothing him like he does Coco when she has a bad dream. Ernesto scrabbles at his throat, trying to tear it open to get more air into it, and Hector smiles sadly down at him, and watches him die.

More often than not, the dreams take him back to the hotel room, where they shared the final toast. Here, Hector realises there is poison in the glass, and they scream and yell at each other, wrestling like the boys they once were. Hector spits out cruel words, and Ernesto snarls out worse ones, and they punch and kick at each other till Ernesto wakes.

(Ernesto dreams that he tells Hector that he loves him. Sometimes Hector hurts him, and sometimes Hector sets down his suitcase and promises not to leave. Sometimes there are mouths, and hands touching skin, and Hector’s whispers in his ear. Ernesto wakes, gasping for breath and uncomfortable below the sheets.)

He dreams of what could have been, Imelda and Hector standing in the kitchen of their home, Coco tucked neatly under Hector’s arm. Ernesto sits at the table and tunes his guitar, which no longer responds to him the way it once did. Hector offers his own guitar to Ernesto instead, having no more need for it, and Ernesto realises the different between gift and given.

On one occasion, he dreams of Coco, fully grown. At first he thinks she’s Imelda, they have the same nose, the same anger bubbling in their veins. She grabs hold of his wrist, sharp nails pricking into the soft skin, and drags him closer.

“The Rivera’s remember.” She hisses, her eyes dark. “And they do not _forget_.”

**Author's Note:**

> *me clutching ernesto's shirt* why'd you have to be such a fucking dick


End file.
